Vacation Time

Every year we spend a week at a cottage somewhere up north. Hailee has always loved this vacation -- she's always excited to go. She tried to explain to Gabi what we would be doing -- crafts, swimming, fishing, tubing, games, etc -- Gabi just smiled and said "okay." She seemed happy to go but not nearly as excited as Hailee (and us) had hoped. Once we were on the way home Hailee asked Gabi what she thought of vacation now .. Gabi's response? "I love boating, I love tubing, I love swimming, I love lakes, I LOVE EVERYTHING. We're guessing that next year she going to be as excited as Hailee is for VACATION!

This year we tried a new place in Phelps -- 11 of us in a large 4 bedroom place. It was the first time that all of us were staying in one cottage and I think we all had a few reservations about how it was going to work. We were pleasantly surprised -- it worked out wonderfully ... we're already planning to stay together next year, although we'll have to find a new spot. Hoping to add a few more people (Gin???? Nancy????) ......

Amanda and Hayden outside our new home for the week.
The living room and the loft.

This was the clearest lake we had ever stayed on -- no matter how far the girls walked out they could see the sandy bottom. The lake was huge and the water was pretty cold.

Only disappointing thing -- there were steps down to the lake ... we had checked into so many places we must have forgotten to ask that important question . .

Pat, Brian and Jack relaxing and enjoying the views.

The loft that you could see above the living room was claimed by the girls. It was perfect for them -- they had their own private space to sleep and hang out -- we could hear them giggling and chatting well into the night. They loved the fact that no one checked if the beds were made and clothes picked up ..... the motto of the week was "we're on vacation." Here they are checking out the action below (or maybe the lack of action).

And what did we do all week? We did some boating -- Hayden and Gabi loved riding in the boat.

And so did Lisa ..... well that is until the lake got very wavy ... then she didn't have the smile on her face. She was more than happy to get out of the boat!

Hayden found out how much fun it is to drive the boat. I'm not sure what he loved more -- driving the boat or honking the horn.

Gabi wasn't sure about sitting on the front seat -- she finally gave it a try and this is what we saw when we were speeding across the lake. Guess she liked it!

Vacation always has lots of time for fishing and this one was no exception. Before Gabi could go out in the boat to fish she needed to learn to cast. Uncle Brian was a great teacher and Gabi was a willing learner and before you knew it she had it down ....

The first night of fishing Jack caught the biggest fish of the week -- he brought it back for pictures and then he let it go after showing it off.

Gabi and Hayden waiting to go fishing ....

Hayden enjoyed being in the boat when we fished. He was always willing to take the tiny ones that were caught and throw them back in to get bigger. He's braver than his Nana who needs a rag to touch any of those slimy fishies! Yep, that's my hand below the fish, ready to catch it in case he dropped it. Almost forgot to mention Hayden's most important job while fishing. Every time a fish was caught he got to push the horn button ... he was a busy boy!

Several nights Jack took the girls out in the row boat. They had a lot of fun because they always caught fish. Jack never got to throw in a line, they kept him busy baiting hooks and taking off fish.

The water was pretty cold and there were several windy days that made the lake very choppy but we were able to get some tubing in ..... Hailee enjoyed the single tube, and believe me she got a workout holding on. Her dad wasn't giving her an easy ride ....

Kylie and Gabi getting ready for their ride -- all smiles now but once they were moving on the lake they were pretty serious riders .....

And then once they were back to shore the smiles came out again. They loved the ride and wanted to go again and again and again!

Amanda wanted to ski -- she found out the water was pretty cold and the lake choppy. She didn't last long. The girls found the water guns and had a great time running around and squirting everyone -- they took a moment to pose for me before finding their next target.

Do you know what happens when you squirt Jonathan A LOT??? Kylie found out ....

Wish I had a video -- they had such a good time! I can't help but wonder how Amanda could concentrate on her book with all the screaming that was going on around her.

Jonathan and Hailee posed for a picture on the pier -- can you guess where Hailee ended up shortly after this picture????

The girls scoured the shoreline for rocks -- the bigger and the prettier the better. They spent hours in the lake finding clams and snails. Sometimes every bucket we had was filled with little lake creatures.

What a great looking group .....

Another drawback to this cottage ... no sandy beach for Hayden. Auntie Pat brought all the sand toys and there was no where to use them. Uncle Brian came up with a plan to fix that little problem. There was a firepit with some sand around it -- so he added to it. Kylie filled buckets with sand from the lake and Brian dumped them in a little pile at the top of the stairs.

Hayden loved it! He played with his trucks and Kylie even brought up some buckets of wet sand that she used to make these sandcastles for him. Hayden decorated them with stones that he found in the area.

The finished product! Like every family we have a few traditional things we do while on vacation. One of them is rock painting. Pat started this many years ago -- rocks are collected from wherever we are and then painted, signed, dated and sealed. We've got quite a few masterpieces in our gardens.

Kylie and Hailee got right to work once they chose the perfect rock .... Gabi sat there and watched them for a long time. She was unsure what to do and asked me for some help. We talked about all the different things Gabi loves .... the blue sky, birds, flowers and rainbows. Her first step was to paint the whole rock blue like the sky ....

Once that was done she decided that maybe she could do a rainbow. She didn't know where to start so I drew the first line .... once that was on the rock she took over ..... she is very proud of her first masterpiece. Once we were home she found the perfect spot for it.

We found these huge velvet posters -- the girls worked on them while it was raining one afternoon. They turned out beautiful.
Lots of time to play games -- a favorite was apples to apples. Kylie was the all time winner -- she was GOOD!

They even found some time to have a tea party one afternoon ....

Of course there was a poker game going on in the kitchen -- Gabi really wanted to learn ....
After a few days we really wanted to take the kids to a beach so we asked around and learned that there was a great beach just a couple miles away. We packed up and off we went ....

It was amazing -- sandy, clear and the water was much warmer than our lake. Kylie and Hailee were looking forward to some real beach playing!

Who was the first to start a big sandcastle???? The grandpa's ..... with a little help from Hayden!

There were very few people here so the guys started a pickle-in-the-middle game with a squishy football ....
Hayden discovered that he could he could bring sand wherever he wanted -- he covered my feet and Pat's ....


At one point Hayden found the football just laying in the water ... he picked it up to examine it. It was very heavy since it was filled with water ....

He decided to squeeze the water out -- he lifted the football way in the air over his head, had this big old smile on his face and squeezed that football as hard as he could ....

He was not a happy camper when that water ran down his head and into his face ..... no crying, but lots of complaining ..... too funny!

Another vacation tradition ..... a trip to Paul Bunyan's for breakfast. They serve a family style breakfast just like the loggers had years ago. Right down to the tin plates and cups -- it's an all you can eat meal -- scrambled eggs, pancakes, fried potatoes, ham, sausage and polish sausage. The food is yummy and the atmosphere is a lot of fun.

All of us at the base of the sign welcoming you to Bunyans.

And here we are at breakfast. Seriously now, we've been here every year, the place hasn't changed at all -- yet every year we take a lot of pictures. And I wasn't the only one -- see Brian in the background doing the same. We're nuts, but that's okay. According to Jonathan and Amanda, Hayden ate more potatoes than all of us put together -- he loved them!

Now for those of you who have never been to Paul Bunyan's we have to explain about the donuts. They give them to you right away and they are the BEST donuts ever ... we know that they want you to eat them so you fill your belly before the actual food comes. We try to resist the temptation but can't!!! Gabi couldn't believe that she could actually have this donut before breakfast -- she was really happy .....

No one had to tell her twice ...........

One last picture at Paul Bunyan's before we leave --

Half the group wanted to go into town, the other half wanted to do the grocery shopping and head back to the cottage so that's what we did.

You can move to Indiana but once you're a cheesehead you'll be one forever!!! (although I think this might be a bit over the top!)Our last day we had beautiful weather .... and Jonathan decided that it was time for water balloons ....

And who got the first one???? Can you believe that he did this to his unsuspecting mother????
Where was his father?????

Kylie showed Gabi what a perfect balloon for the water balloon toss game looks like. Gabi was a little confused on what this was going to be ... she learned quickly!!!

Jack and Pat were a team .....

Gabi getting ready to toss the balloon to Lisa ..... thinking Lisa got a little wet this time ....

Jonathan threw the balloon that Amanda is TRYING to catch -- she was soaked!

And little Mr. Hayden -- once he saw that Jonathan broke a balloon on my head he brought every balloon he could find and tossed it at me. He'd come running at me with this little evil laugh, throw it and turn around and run ..... I think he's going to grow up to be just like his father. Watch out Amanda!!!

For lunch our last day Jonathan and Amanda treated us to pizza pudgie pies ..... never had them but they were very tasty!

We were all sad to leave -- what a perfect vacation we had. The saddest of all were the kids -- Kylie wanted to stay the rest of the summer. Gabi and Hailee agreed ........ me too guys, me too!!!